Rutgers coach Greg Schiano 'encouraged' about next year's team

John Munson/The Star-LedgerRutgers coach Greg Schiano said he is encouraged by his team's prospects of making a run at the school's first Big East title next fall.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano gives his final thoughts on 2011Rutgers was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big East in 2011. Instead, the team won nine games and contended for a conference title. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano gave his final thoughts on the season and looked ahead toward his expectations for 2012. (Video by Michael Monday/The Star-Ledger)

In addition to Sanu, Rutgers will lose four other offensive starters — linemen Desmond Wynn, Art Forst and Caleb Ruch, as well as fullback Joe Martinek. But there are solid replacements already for those four.

"We'll see," coach Greg Schiano said at today's season-ending press conference on campus, when asked about his team being in position to win the school's first Big East title next season. "A lot can happen between now and next fall, between now and December.

"But I am encouraged, certainly encouraged by the direction the program is headed. I'm encouraged by the people in the program, the coaching staff and players, the support personnel. It takes a long time to build that kind of human capital at a place and I'm excited about it."

Schiano said one of his hopes heading into the spring is that either Chas Dodd or Gary Nova wrests control of the quarterback job after they split starts and reps during the Knights' recently-completed 9-4 season.

"Like I've said all along, I think we have two quarterbacks I think we can win games with," he said. "I really want one to jump up and take things by the horns and make it their position. But I'm not going to make that happen. It has to happen."

Among the other highlights from his season re-cap:

-- Starting weakside linebacker Khaseem Greene, who snapped his right fibula (not his ankle, as originally thought) in the 27-13 Pinstripe Bowl victory over Iowa State, will need surgery and will miss spring practice — though Schiano said both Greene and middle linebacker Steve Beauharnais were not scheduled for any major work in the spring. He wants to develop younger linebackers then.

"It's not a complicated surgery. It's not one that is worrisome," Schiano said of Greene, the team's leading tackle and the Big East's co-Defensive Player of the Year. "But he's going to have to have it fixed."

-- Schiano cryptically acknowledged that he is recruiting another quarterback even though he has Dodd and Nova returning, redshirted Mike Bimonte and has a verbal commitment from Blake Rankin. That would seem to leave the door open for a return for Tom Savage, who is seeking to come back to Rutgers after leaving Arizona for personal reasons.

Savage can only be eligible immediately if he receives a special waiver from the NCAA, which he has applied for.

"We're recruiting another quarterback. We have a committed quarterback (but) we're recruiting another quarterback right now," he said. "I can't say much more than that or I'll get in trouble."

Savage, a freshman All-America at Rutgers in 2009, transferred out after losing his starting job to Dodd over the final eight games of the 2010 season. he sat out at Arizona last year, meaning he will have two years of eligibility if he receivers the waiver from the NCAA.

-- Schiano said AD Tim Pernetti and his staff are still trying to get "a major BCS big-name team," to fill the void on the schedule for next year, with a possible neutral site game against Oklahoma at Met Life Stadium among the possibilities.